Bill Frezza is a 35-year veteran of the technology industry. After graduating from MIT with degrees in both science and engineering, Bill spent his early years at Bell Laboratories. Since then, he has worked as a product manager, salesman, marketer, entrepreneur, consultant, technology evangelist, and venture capitalist. Bill holds seven patents and has been investing in early-stage tech startups for the last 17 years as a partner in a venture capital firm. Since 2008, he has been writing weekly opinion columns for publications such as RealClearMarkets.com, Forbes.com, the Huffington Post and Bio-IT World and appeared regularly on TV and radio outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and WBAL. In 2011, he was a finalist for the Hoiles Prize for excellence in American journalism and in October 2013, he became the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 2013-2014 Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow. In January 2014, Bill began hosting RealClear Radio Hour airing Saturdays on Boston’s WXKS 1200AM & WJMN 94.5FM-HD2.

Give Greece What It Deserves: Communism

Once in a great while an opportunity comes along to deliver justice to a people, giving them what they truly deserve. Greece’s time has come.

It must be dawning on all but the most obtuse member of the banking elite that they can’t possibly steal enough money from German taxpayers to save the Greek government from default. Put it off, maybe, but collapse is inevitable.

Once this happens, what is the purpose of casting Greece into some selective temporary financial purgatory where the irrelevant Greek economy can continue embarrassing anyone foolish enough to lend their dysfunctional government a dime? Why not go all the way and give the country what many of its people have been violently demanding for almost a century?

Let them have Communism.

Hard as it is for young people to believe, Communism was once a major historical force holding billions of people in thrall. Outside the halls of elite universities, who still takes it seriously? Sure we have Cuba, where the Castro deathwatch is the last thing standing between that benighted penal colony and an inevitable makeover by Club Med. Then there is Venezuela, though hope is fading that Hugo Chavez will carry the Bolivarian banner much longer now that he’s busy sucking down FOLFOX cocktails while checking for signs that his hair is falling out. And frankly, a psychopathic family dynasty ruling a nation of stunted zombies hardly makes North Korea a proper Communist exemplar.

What the world needs, lest we forget, is a contemporary example of Communism in action. What better candidate than Greece? They’ve been pining for it for years, exhibiting a level of anti-capitalist vitriol unmatched in any developed country. They are temperamentally attuned to it, having driven all hard working Greeks abroad in search of opportunity. They pose no military threat to their neighbors, unless you quake at the sight of soldiers marching around in white skirts. And they have all the trappings of a modern Western nation, making them an uncompromised test bed for Marxist theories. Just toss them out of the European Union, cut off the flow of free Euros, and hand them back the printing plates for their old drachmas. Then stand back for a generation and watch.

The land that invented democracy used it to perfect the art of living at the expense of others, an example all Western democracies appear intent on emulating. Being the first to run out of other people’s money makes Greece truly ripe to take the next logical step beyond socialism.

As wrenching as it will be we can take comfort in the fact that Greece doesn’t have much of an economy to disrupt. The only Greek industry that’s worth a damn is tourism, rapidly collapsing as travelers get tired of being stranded by strikes while dodging Molotov cocktails. The rest of us can find plenty of other sources of lamb chops, yogurt, and olive oil. They crushed the concept of private property long ago under the burden of environmental, cultural, and social regulations that govern land use. Wouldn’t it be instructive to let them have a go at building a workers’ paradise to remind us what state enforced equality looks like?

Unlike neighboring Balkan nations that got to experience the joys of Communism after the Second World War, Greece was brought back from the brink by massive western intervention as well as a Churchillian side deal that obliged Stalin to butt out. The nasty civil war between the Greek Communist Party (the KKE) and government forces backed by Britain and the U.S. set the stage for decades of struggle between communist sympathizers who never gave up the dream, and right wing juntas determined to rule by force. The uneasy peace that has existed since the colonels were booted merely masks underlying tensions as every Greek worries, is someone else working fewer hours than I am?

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I too am a Greek American, and I have heard the same argument you pose from many other Greek Americans. It’s too simplistic, in my opinion.

Most Greeks work hard, most Greeks are not communists, and most Greeks are nothing like the stereotype you portray.

Furthermore, the current crisis is not just a Greek crisis, but a global financial crisis. I fail to see that many metrics where Greece differs all that much from the US.

As for the EU, it is a failed experiment. If this was truly a uniquely Greek crisis, then why the concurrent crises in Portugal, Ireland, soon Italy and Spain? There’s more to it. Something else is going on.

And I would like for once to see the mainstream media portray German bankers as reckless instead of dishing out the lazy Mediterranean stereotype. Was it not the German banks that were the most leveraged banks in the world? Didn’t European banks get the lion’s share of Federal Reserve assistance – bailouts? Aren’t these EU bailouts really Banker bailouts?

You know why Turkey is doing well? It didn’t join the EU. It devalued the Turkish Lira – remember its high inflation the last ten years? Can Greece do the same?

Greece effectively has the Deutsche Mark, whereas the US is devaluing Drachma style.

Germany caused a bubble in the periphery nations in the early 2000s. Germany instituted mercantilist policies – so the goal was, the periphery purchased German goods, and paid German banks interest on loans. Not unlike the US-China relationship. Such systems last until they don’t. And then it gets ugly.

Personally, I’m tired of the Greek stereotypes, and prefer more thorough analysis that entails a better understanding of the operational realities of a common currency area that lacks fiscal union… but I understand, audiences prefer simplistic stereotypes to detailed analysis that requires thought.

I don’t know where to begin with your ignorant diatribe. Until the end where you claim to be of Greek decent I was ready to label you a racist. Hard working Turks vs. lazy Greeks? Have you ever been there or more importantly lived there for any extended period? There are no doubt real problems in Greece. A bloated, corrupt government and public sector and unbalanced power for the unions but the wholesale dismissal of a people as lazy is ridiculous. Try cracking open a few books on Greece’s recent history – not about Aristotle and Themistocles but about men like Venizelos. Try reading “Twice a Stranger” by Colin Wells or David Brewer’s “Greece, the Hidden Centuries” and then remember that Greece, just 15 or so years removed from an absolute humanitarian catastrophe (the population exchange begun in 1923) was able to repel Mussolini’s Facist army and even liberate Albania from the facists (apparently, the skirts made them invincible to Italians). Following that war (WWII), there was a civil war and a junta regime. The modern Greek state has only been in existence since 1974. They have almost no natural resources of value – this is nothing new; since ancient times the Greeks had to colonize other areas because there weren’t enough resources for the growing population. Greeks flourish wherever they go. Their problem is that they do a poor job of leading themselves. They do very well from within someone else’s constructs (see Roman Empire turning into Byzantine Empire and lasting twice as long; also, see the real reasons for Ataturk’s revolution against the Ottoman Empire – the Greeks dominated the merchant class and trade).

Turkey left begging? Have you looked at their record of human rights? Ask the Armenians and the Kurds how well they are treated by the hard working Turks. The 1923 Lausanne Treaty called for Orthodox Christians to be allowed to live in Constantinople and Muslims to live in Thrace. Those 800,000 Muslims are still in Thrace but there are only 5,000 Orthodox Christians in Turkey, which is baffling because the poor, hard working Turks are such upstanding citizens of the world and treat them so well.

You clearly have no real understanding of what is happening in that part of the world and have no business spouting off a baseless and ignorant (and I mean that in the true definition of the word – you don’t know or understand) opinion. It’s a mess over there. The unions need their power to be greatly reduced. The government needs to be slashed in size and scope. Business needs to be fostered by clearing up the Byzantine red tape that must be cleared and there must be transparency and integrity in the tax system and administration of it. Put that in place and the hard working people over there (my father was born there. I have lived there) will flourish as they always have. Oh, as an aside, you mention Greece constantly being a credit problem. Maybe you will recall (or learn for the first time) that the three largest bankruptcies in the last 100 years in Europe have all come from Germany and they were all large and devastating to the world economy.

That’s really quite nice of you, an American, to give the Greek people a government of their choosing. I guess we’ve come a long way from the CIA supported junta of 1967 when Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup, complaining that it represented “A rape of democracy”, to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered, “How can you rape a whore?”

I just read that the Greek Crisis is part of the global financial crisis. Such a generalization seems like an attempt to escape the unique problems that belong to Greece alone. Gusk talked about everything but what Greece and Greeks did to themselves.

Greek debt is well over 12% of GDP. The Stability & Growth Pact calls for a 3% limit. The Netherlands exceeded this limit in 1999 and undertook immediate policy measures to address the problem. The Greek government has only been within the debt limit one year in the last ten.

Gusk also ignores the fact that the Greek government admits it lied about its debt throughout its application period to the euro zone. An honest Greece wouldn’t be a euro zone member today. How does anyone but Greece bear responsibility for the lies and euro zone membership? Greece again lied about its deficit and deficit projections in 2008 & 2009.

Greece lied because they wanted lower interest rates euro zone members received. Turkey didn’t lie to join the euro zone. Greece did. Lower interest rates saves Greece in the neighborhood of $100 billion, and it all was the result of Greek lies about their finances.

The Greek credit rating is lower than Portugal, Italy, Ireland, or Spain. Greek is not an equal among victims as Gusk described. Why? Because Greece not only lied to gain membership to the euro zone in order to save money on interest rates the Greeks wasted all of those savings. Greece did not get its financial house in order when it had the opportunity. Who does Gusk blame for that?

It is a typical, empty ploy to call someone a racist when you don’t have a valid argument to counter with. What you hope is to win the argument by causing the author to shut-up and walk away. You lose.

Stereotyping one race, creed, or ethnicity is racism. We generally tolerate it when it is done from within (as the author claims to be of Greek decent). If you read my response you will see that I in fact did not call him a racist but instead questioned his depth of knowledge and insight into Greece, the Greek people and their issues right now. I think I actually did lay out an argument and did not hope to “win the argument by causing the author to shut-up and walk away”. The article was deeply offensive to me. I am not someone who just reads headlines or sees the 10 seconds of video that CNN plays and then thinks he knows enough to form an opinion on what is happening in Greece. I have a degree in economics and taxation. I am a Greek American. I lived in Greece for many years. I have read more books than I can count on Greek history, both modern and ancient and I am knowledgeable about the subject on which I am speaking. I own property over there and pay taxes and deal with the ridiculous bureaucratic hazards in Greece. The author of this blog post has shown blatant ignorance in some of the things he wrote. Ignorance in the true sense of the word as I wrote above. He clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about and has some kind of self-hating bent because he is Greek and is embarrassed by the press coverage over there or something like that.

Clearly, however, I did not just scream “racist” and walk away. /end of my two cents.

@ scootermclean, actually except for Luxembourg, none of the countries who joined the Euro meet the debt level requirement of 3% to GDP requirement. So Greece was not the only who lied. Buddy, we can now stop with that ridiculous argument.

I will not absolve Greece of gross inefficient bureaucracy and corruption. But it takes two to tango. There have been many reported incidences of foreign countries bribing Greek politicians.

As for Greece being a mere consumer – Remember the first bailout? Didn’t it include Greece buying frigates and other military hardware from France and Germany? Some things never change.

Read the articles I posted. The macro issue, the global financial crisis I speak of is due to fiat currency. Unlike the prior gold standard, fiat money is easily expandable and extreme trade imbalances develop. That’s what we’re seeing here.

If Greece never joined the Euro, they would have had a smaller crisis 10 years ago that would have corrected their productivity issues. Joining the Euro allowed Greece’s politicians to borrow (just like any politician) and to create the circumstances for a greater collapse down the road. The cheap Euro also created a bubble of malinvestments – similar to Greenspan’s stewardship of the US dollar.

So Greece is not unique in this. Case in point: the US.

It is a global fiat collapse we are going through. It will end with a reversion to the gold standard as the system, burdened by credit growth, collapses.

And I view all credit as equal. Greece has a tremendous gov’t debt – but per capita, its provate sector debt is less than Germany’s as well as many other nations. Eventually, as the crisis continues, private sector debt will collapse, affecting banks, which in turn affects government balance sheets as the private sector debt migrates to the public balance sheet. Ireland in an example of this.

And so Greece is the first to have this crisis because most of its total debt is in the public sector and has nowhere else to go (but the ECB).

For example, whereas Greece’s mortgage loans to gdp is around 30%, many other countries in Europe are near 100%. So what’s the difference? Just a question of time.